It is commonly understood in the coffee industry that different varieties of roasted coffee and methods of brewing coffee require a specific particle size of ground coffee and specific ration of ground coffee to water and to achieve optimal results. The precision required for some coffees requires a slower grinding speed than is customary to ensure that the coffee beans are cut rather than crushed by the grinding mechanism. Existing coffee grinders are not able to vary the speed on demand for each kind of coffee being ground or accurately adjust the quantity of coffee delivered to accommodate different brewing methods. Grinders that are able to grind coffee to order use time as a method of measurement must be continuously be adjusted when grind settings are changed. Using time as a means of measuring ground coffee is impossible if a grinder is to be used for anything other than a single type of coffee brewing method.
Historically, coffee grinders are comprised of a container to hold whole coffee beans above the grinding mechanism. In order to facilitate cleaning of this container, removing or replacing the coffee beans, a closing mechanism is required to stop the flow of coffee and the container is removed. Fragile bean containers often break when being handled once removed from the machine and excess quantity of coffee beans remain in the grinder and must be ground and discarded.
Coffee Shop owners and roasters have long sought viable methods to track coffee consumption and record usage data in order to properly schedule maintenance of their machines and manage inventory. Previous attempts to record data include simple counters on coffee grinder dosing lever, but these grinders often require more than one pulls on the dispensing lever to deliver the correct amount of coffee. Espresso coffee machines are often equipped with devices to count the number of times a button is pushed to dispense coffee, but these machines are unable to differentiate between a button pressed deliver coffee and one simply to rinse between servings. This inaccurate data is kept on the machine itself and there is no facility to automatically collect and analyze usage information. Grinders used to prepare coffee for methods other than espresso have no means of gathering coffee consumption data either by quantity or brewing method.
Existing systems that attempt to control the delivery of food product in food preparation have used time for portion control cannot accurately measure consumption and no means to log or deliver usage data to coffee roasters or store managers.
Most importantly, no accurate means exists to calibrate the distance between the grinding mills so that the numeric indicator of the grind setting on one grinder is consistent with any other grinder.